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The Flys
Although incessantly tagged as ‘punk’, to my way of thinking The Flys were much more a new wave rock band, lying more to straight rock than punk. Either way, they were capable of some astounding music and have left a body of work that refuses to just disappear.
Whenever I hear the name The Flys, the first thing that comes into my head is the Song Sixteen Down, a perfect piece of power pop if ever there was one. That’s the sad thing about this Coventry outfit. They could write some terrifically powerful songs, but failed to make an impact on the charts. A band which always had the drive and determination to be bigger, they just couldn’t seem to cut the mustard when it mattered. Originally called Midnight Circus (who had once played at The Memorial Park), they changed their name to The Flys in late 76. They comprised of Neil O’Connor (vocals & guitar), David Freeman (guitar & Vocals), Joe Hughes (bass & Vocals) and Pete King (drums).
They released an EP on their own Lama label in 1977, entitled A Bunch of Fives the lead track was I Can Crash here.
It was the last track however Love and a Molotov Cocktail,that (and the fact they were supporting The Buzzcocks) was to help persuade EMI sign them, indeed within a year Love and a Molotov Cocktail was out on the EMI records.
Neil O’Connor takes up the story.” We played “Mr George” the first two times we played at this place we were hated. Too local? Did they think that we thought we were better than anybody else? I still don’t know about that but we received the whole shebang of glasses and bottles being thrown in our direction of the stage and crashing around us as well as the fashion of gobbing we learned fast how to dodge these various projectiles, but two times in your home town is not a lot of fun.
But..we did have a small fan base, and one of these people, Adrian, was instrumental in changing all of our lives forever. At the time he was a young kid of 16 years who would sit in at our practices, he was a lovely person though very critical, he should have been our manager, precocious, opinionated, a real character. He was also a very good friend of Pete Shelley from the “Buzzcocks” or so he claimed, of course we took that information with a pinch of salt except. On a Saturday morning, two weeks after our last debacle at the famous “Mr George”, David and I received a phone call from Adrian to ask us if “The Flys” would be interested to open for The Buzzcocks that very same evening at “Mr George”.
So, in trepidation, we accepted and with trepidation, we crashed the first chord of our first song in the set and we went down a storm, not one glass crashed around our heads, yeah some gob but, if it can be said, friendly gob. We played the same songs that we’d been playing since a few months, nothing had really changed except, perhaps, we had now become acceptable because of our association, for that night, opening for these new stars of the scene, “The Buzzcocks”. They were great. We had such a good time together and after that evening we opened for them for the rest of their tour, EMI saw us and we had our first record contract.
Although that record didn’t chart, it did their reputation no harm whatsoever. The singles Oh Beverly and Fun City followed, as did their debut album Waikiki Beach Refugees in 1978. A single also entitled Waikiki Beach Refugees was released from the album this was probably to become their best-known song. 1979 saw the release of the EP Four from the square with the brilliant lead track Sixteen Down. The singles Name Dropping, We Are the Lucky Ones and What Will Mother Say were released in 1979/80 along with their second and last album (not counting greatest hits packages) Own. Graham Deakin (from John Entwistle’s Ox) had by this time replaced Pete King on drums. King was to go on and join Christian rockers After the Fire chalking up a top 5 hit in the USA with Der Kommissar and later joining Zip Codes in 1983.He tragically died of cancer in 1987 aged just 26. (The original drummer in Midnight Circus Paul Angelopoulis, had also died aged 24). After much touring over the years supporting the likes of The Ruts, The Buzzcocks and John Otaway. The rot had set in and with much in-fighting in 1980 they split. Neil was to join his sister’s band Hazel O’Connor’s Megahype) and progress as a producer/arranger. Joe Hughes became a member of Roddy Radiation and the Tearjerkers he and Dave Freeman went on to form. The Lover Speaks Freeman had also released a solo single, Stop in The Name of Love, took a degree, issued poetry and co produced and performed on The Raindancing album for Alison Moyet. I’ll leave the last words to Neil O’Connor, “It’s a very pleasant memory especially as without that particular Saturday The Flys may not have found a record contract and therefore Dave and Joe may not have met and worked with Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox and I would not be still doing what I love to do (since many years I’m a record producer though I prefer the French expression, as I live in the French speaking province of Quebec, “Réalisateur”.
The Flys Trivia
For more Backbeat information go to www.covmusic.net
Contact Pete at backbeat@covmusic.net
You can hear Pete Chambers’ “Pop Into The Past” on Bob Brolly’s Friday Show every Fortnight from 3.00 p.m. and The “Sound Chamber” on Anita Miah’s Monday
evening show every Fortnight from 8.00pm on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.